Where Did Those Potholes Come From?
It is a warm sunny day. You are cruising down the smooth highway with the top down on your convertible “Little Deuce Coupe” when all of a sudden, without warning, you encounter a patch of very rough road. You slam on the brakes to slow down your car, but not before the car is rattled to its core. Your iced tea flies out of the cup holder and spills in your lap, The Beach Boys CD you were listening to skips due to the jolt, your dog in the backseat yelps, and your car’s electronic anti-skid control system kicks in to keep the car from careening totally out of control. After what seems like an eternity, you finally get the car slowed down, pull onto the shoulder of the road, and it is at that point you and your passenger look at each other and simultaneously yell, “What was that?”
Sound familiar? Not only is the highway full of potholes and speed bumps, life too is full of rough and bumpy patches. Sometimes they just cause us to tap the brake ever so gently simply to slow down, other times they are craters or mountains that cause us to slam on the brakes in order to avoid crashing. Sometimes we see the bump ahead and we can prepare, other times it comes out of nowhere and we find ourselves upside down along side the road wondering what just happened.
None of us like when life seems to spin out of control. In those moments of spinning out of control, or when you sit upside down in your car, despair and hopelessness often sets in. The confidence and peace you had as you were cruisin’ down the road have turned to fear and worry. In the blink of an eye, your dreams and plans for the future have changed.
It is in that very moment that you can turn the hopelessness to hopefulness, the fear into calm, and the insecurity to security. God tells us that He is in control and that nothing is too hard for Him. It is often hard to understand why bad things happen and even harder to understand, if not impossible, to see in advance how God is at work. But our faith is rooted in the truth that God is sovereign and in absolute control of everything. In our limited perspective, God’s ways to do not always make sense to us, but Scripture tells us that His ways are higher than our ways. In Isaiah 55:9 we read this, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
So, just when you think the road ahead looks too bumpy or the hole seems to deep too climb out of, reprogram your GPS towards God and ask Him to lead and guide you. These next words are the beginning of a prayer the prophet Jeremiah prayed when he had doubts while facing a very difficult situation. In Jeremiah 32:17 we see him cry out… “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth (see Genesis 2:1) by your great power and outstretched arm (see Jeremiah 27:5). Nothing is too hard for you (see Genesis 18:14).”
I will end with God’s reply to Jeremiah – “Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: ‘I am the LORD, the God of all mankind, Is anything too hard for me?’” (32:26-27)
Dave’s Note – As I continue to recover after suffering a stroke, I will only be writing periodically over the next six weeks or so. As my brain and motor skills improve, it is my goal to get back to writing on a regular basis.
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